2022 AMC 8 Exam Solutions
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All of the real AMC 8 and AMC 10 problems in our complete solution collection are used with official permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
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1.
The Math Team designed a logo shaped like a multiplication symbol, shown below on a grid of 1-inch squares. What is the area of the logo in square inches?
Solution:
Let's first consider the following:
Using the Pythagorean theorem, we know how to solve for relatively easily: With that in mind, let's try and find the area of the purple square: We now know that the area of this slanted, small square is equal to 2. With that in mind, let's look at the full picture:
We can clearly see that there are 5 of these same small purple squares that make up the logo. We already know that the area of one of the small purple squares is equal to 2, so the total area is: Thus, the answer is A.
2.
Consider these two operations:
Compute the value:
Solution:
Given the definitions of and we can directly substitute these operations for said definitions to get:
Thus, the answer is D.
3.
When three positive integers and are multiplied together, their product is Suppose In how many ways can the numbers be chosen?
Solution:
We are given that
As such, we know that which implies that
Considering we know that and and therefore, we can conclude that As is a positive integer, we have four possible values of As is a factor of we can eliminate the possibility of being and are now left with three cases:
If then Since we know so Since is a factor of that satisfies this constraint, must be either This creates the solutions of or
If then Since we know so Since is a factor of that satisfies this constraint, must be This creates the solution of
If then Since we know so This creates no integer solutions for
We therefore have 4 total solutions.
Thus, the answer is A.
4.
The letter M in the figure below is first reflected over the line and then reflected over the line What is the resulting image?
Solution:
First reflect
M
over the line from which we obtain the following:
Then reflect
M
over the line from which we obtain the following:
Thus, the answer is E.
5.
Anna and Bella are celebrating their birthdays together. Five years ago, when Bella turned years old, she received a newborn kitten as a birthday present. Today the sum of the ages of the two children and the kitten is years. How many years older than Bella is Anna?
Solution:
If Bella was five years ago, then she is right now.
If the kitten was a newborn five years ago, then it is right now.
Since the sum of all ages is Anna's age is
Since Anna is and Bella is she is years older than Bella.
Thus, the answer is C.
6.
Three positive integers are equally spaced on a number line. The middle number is and the largest number is times the smallest number. What is the smallest of these three numbers?
Solution:
Since one of the outer number is times the other, we can make one of the numbers and the other be
Since the numbers are equally spaced, the middle number is the average of the outer two.
This means the average of and is 15, so This means so Our outer numbers therefore are so the smaller one is 6.
Thus, the answer is C.
7.
When the World Wide Web first became popular in the 1990s, download speeds reached a maximum of about kilobits per second. Approximately how many minutes would the download of a -megabyte song have taken at that speed? (Note that there are kilobits in a megabyte.)
Solution:
Given our definition of a megabyte as kilobits, we know megabytes is kilobits. This can be rewritten as kilobits which leads to us having kilobits. Since we know there are kilobits per second, we have seconds. This leads us to the answer of minutes.
Thus, the answer is B.
8.
What is the value of:
Solution:
Since every integer from to occurs once as a denominator and once as a numerator, they cancel each other out.
After canceling every number out, we have only and left as numerators and and left as denominators.
The remaining fraction is This simplifies to
9.
A cup of boiling water ( F) is placed to cool in a room whose temperature remains constant at F. Suppose the difference between the water temperature and the room temperature is halved every minutes. What is the water temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit, after minutes?
Solution:
The current difference is
Since we have minutes while halving every minutes, we halve the difference times.
This means the difference is multiplied by so our new difference is This makes our final temperature
Thus, the answer is B.
10.
One sunny day, Ling decided to take a hike in the mountains. She left her house at a.m., drove at a constant speed of miles per hour, and arrived at the hiking trail at a.m. After hiking for hours, Ling drove home at a constant speed of miles per hour. Which of the following graphs best illustrates the distance between Ling’s car and her house over the course of her trip?
Solution:
She drives miles per hour for the first hours, so she travels miles in the first two hours. This leaves choices
Since she hikes for hours, she starts going back at pm.
She drives miles at mph, so she gets back in hours, so she is back at :
Thus, the answer is E.
11.
Henry the donkey has a very long piece of pasta. He takes a number of bites of pasta, each time eating inches of pasta from the middle of one piece. In the end, he has pieces of pasta whose total length is inches. How long, in inches, was the piece of pasta he started with?
Solution:
Since there are pieces, there were locations where a bite was made. Since we have bites and inches are removed per bite, a total of inches were removed.
With inches removed and inches remaining, we know we started with inches.
Thus, the answer is D.
12.
The arrows on the two spinners shown below are spun. Let the number equal times the number on Spinner A, added to the number on Spinner B. What is the probability that is a perfect square number?
Solution:
This is the same problem as if we made the spinner A make the tens digit and spinner B make the ones digit.
If the tens digit is 5,6,7, or 8, and the ones digit is 1,2,3, or 4, the only possible ways to get a perfect square is 6,4 or 8,1.
There are 4x4=16 possible combinations that are equally likely, and 2 of them satisfy the property. Therfore, our answer is
Thus, the answer is B.
13.
How many positive integers can fill the blank in the sentence below?
“One positive integer is ___ more than twice another, and the sum of the two numbers is ”
Solution:
Let the first number be Then the second number is where both and are positive integers.
Since their sum is we know
This also means
With the smallest possible value of is
With we know so
This means the maximum value of is
Since can be any number from to we have solutions.
Thus, the answer is D.
14.
In how many ways can the letters in BEEKEEPER be rearranged so that two or more E's do not appear together?
Solution:
First, I claim that every E must be in an odd position.
This is because bringing any two Es together would bring them right next to each other.
This means the B,K,P, and R must each be in one of the even positions.
There are choices for a letter in the second position, choices for position for B, remaining choices for a position in K, remaining choices for a position in P, and remaining choice for a position in R.
Therefore, there are possible choices.
Thus, the answer is D.
15.
László went online to shop for black pepper and found thirty different black pepper options varying in weight and price, shown in the scatter plot below. In ounces, what is the weight of the pepper that offers the lowest price per ounce?
Solution:
For each weight, we find the lowest price.
At ounce, we have a price slightly over dollar, so the price per ounce is greater than
At ounces, we have a price of dollars, so the price per ounce is
At ounces, we have a price of about dollars, so the price per ounce close to which is close to
At ounces, we have a price close to dollars, so the price per ounce close to which is close to
At ounces, we have a price close to dollars, so the price per ounce close to which is close to
The price per ounce at ounces is the lowest.
Thus, the answer is C.
16.
Four numbers are written in a row. The average of the first two is the average of the middle two is and the average of the last two is What is the average of the first and last of the numbers?
Solution:
Let the numbers be in order.
Since the average of and is we know their sum is
Since the average of and is we know their sum is
Since and we know
Now, with the average of and being we know their sum is This means
Subtracting this result from the sum of all the terms yields
Since our answer is
Thus, the answer is B.
17.
If is an even positive integer, the double factorial notation represents the product of all the even integers from to For example:
What is the units digit of the following sum?
Solution:
If we take for an even that is greater or equal to then is one of the numbers we multiply by. Since is a factor of we know that the units digit of is which means that it doesn't affect our result.
This means it suffices to compute the units digit of which is equivalent to: The units digit therefore is
Thus, the answer is B.
18.
The midpoints of the four sides of a rectangle are:
What is the area of the rectangle?
Solution:
Allow: This gives us the following rhombus:
Now, moving away from the rhombus in question, let's consider more generally the relationship between a quadrilateral and the figure formed by its midpoints. Observe the arbitrary quadrilateral its diagonals (dashed red), and the figure formed by its midpoints:
Note that the actual coordinates of don't matter, rather, as long as is a convex quadrilateral.
Let's first consider the triangle Notice that as is the midpoint of and similarly, Also notice that the angle is contained within both and Therefore, we know that the two triangles are similar, and consequently, the side and the diagonal are parallel, and We can use this same reasoning to show that the side and the diagonal are parallel, and Furthermore, if we consider the triangles formed by the other diagonal we can reapply this reasoning to show that the sides and the diagonal are parallel, and
Therefore, is a parallelogram where each of the unequal sides' lengths are equal to half the length of the corresponding parallel diagonal. With that in mind, notice that if we were to create a triangle out of and the midpoint of then the area of the right part of the parallelogram would be half the area of the new triangle formed, which would be the area of Similarly, it is clear that the area of the bottom left part of the parallelogram is half the area of Adding those two parts up shows that the area of is half that of
With that in mind, let's go back to the original problem. Calculating the area of : And as the area of is half that of the quadrilateral whose midpoints created it, we can conclude that the parent quadrilateral has an area of
Thus, the answer is C.
19.
Mr. Ramos gave a test to his class of students. The dot plot below shows the distribution of test scores.
Later Mr. Ramos discovered that there was a scoring error on one of the questions. He regraded the tests, awarding some of the students extra points, which increased the median test score to What is the minimum number of students who received extra points?
(Note that the median test score equals the average of the scores in the middle if the test scores are arranged in increasing order.)
Solution:
To make the median equal to the average between the th and th highest scores must be Therefore, we either have the th best and th best scores being or having the th best score be above and the bottom and the th best score be under The second option involves not having any scores of
If we move all the scores out of we have only scores greater than We can't move any other score to be greater than Therefore, this scenario can't happen.
Therefore, we must have the th and th best scores be There are currently scores greater than or equal to so we must add more scores so the th best score is
Thus, the answer is C.
20.
The grid below is to be filled with integers in such a way that the sum of the numbers in each row and the sum of the numbers in each column are the same. Four numbers are missing. The number in the lower left corner is larger than the other three missing numbers. What is the smallest possible value of
Solution:
First, by adding the numbers on the top row, we know the sum of the rows and columns are
Since the sum of the numbers in the first column is and we know that one of the numbers is we know the sum of the other two is This means that the number above is
Since the sum of the numbers in the bottom row is and we know that one of the numbers is we know the sum of the other two is This means that the number to the right of is
Since the sum of the numbers in the middle row is and we know that two of them are and we know the remaining number is
We know that and as is the greatest number. This leads us to know Since is always true, our only restriction is This means is our minimum solution.
Thus, the answer is D.
21.
Steph scored baskets out of attempts in the first half of a game, and baskets out of attempts in the second half. Candace took attempts in the first half and attempts in the second. In each half, Steph scored a higher percentage of baskets than Candace. Surprisingly they ended with the same overall percentage of baskets scored. How many more baskets did Candace score in the second half than in the first?
Solution:
They both shot 30 baskets total, so if they have the same make percentage, then they made the same total amount. This means Candace also made total shots.
Now, let be the number of shots Candace made in the first half and let be the number of shots Candace made in the second half.
We know she made shots, so
By the condition that she had a lower percentage in each half, we know and With cross multiplication, we know and Since are whole numbers, we have the restriction that
With our knowledge that and the condition that the only possible solution is and
This makes our answer
Thus, the answer is C.
22.
A bus takes minutes to drive from one stop to the next, and waits minute at each stop to let passengers board. Zia takes minutes to walk from one bus stop to the next. As Zia reaches a bus stop, if the bus is at the previous stop or has already left the previous stop, then she will wait for the bus. Otherwise she will start walking toward the next stop. Suppose the bus and Zia start at the same time toward the library, with the bus stops behind. After how many minutes will Zia board the bus?
Solution:
Since a bus stops takes minutes to drive and minute at every stop, the bus takes minutes at every stop.
Zia can only stop at every minute interval as that is when she arrives at a bus stop and chooses whether to stop or continue.
Therefore, we can consider the time Zia stops by looking at each of their locations at these intervals.
After minutes, Zia is stops from where the bus started.
After minutes, Zia is stops from where the bus started. Meanwhile, the bus is stops from where it started, waiting. Zia therefore doesn't stop here.
After minutes, Zia is stops from where the bus started. Meanwhile, the bus is between the rd and th stops from where it started. Zia therefore doesn't stop here.
After minutes, Zia is stops from where the bus started. Meanwhile, the bus is stops from where it started, about to leave. Since the bus is at the previous stop, she will wait here.
It will then take more minutes to get to Zia, so the total time was minutes.
Thus, the answer is A.
23.
A or is placed in each of the nine squares in a grid. Shown below is a sample configuration with three 's in a line.
How many configurations will have three 's in a line and three 's in a line?
Solution:
First, there can't be a horizontal line of one shape and a vertical line of another shape.
This can't happen as it would require a position to take both shapes.
This means we can consider only when the lines are horizontal and only when the lines are vertical.
Since rotating the shapes will take the lines from horizontal to vertical, we only need to check how many vertical lines there are as there are equally as many horizontal lines.
Now, when finding configurations, we can have separate vertical lines or only vertical lines. We can split this into cases.
Case 1: lines: There are choices for the first line (which could be all triangles and all circles), choices for the second line, and choices for the third line. This would make choices. However, there are two cases to ignore in which each line is the same. These cases would ensure that only one shape has a line. Therefore, with lines, we have total choices.
Case 2: lines: Since there are two lines and we need at least one line of each shape, each shape can only have one line. There are ways to choose a spot for the line of triangles a ways to choose a spot for the line of circles. Now, with the remaining 3 spots, we need to ensure that a line isn't creates or it would fall into the other case. This would mean we have choices for the remaining line. Totally, we have choices with lines.
This means we have configurations with vertical lines. As shown before, we have the same number of horizontal configurations, so we have horizontal configurations. This makes total cases.
Thus, the answer is D.
24.
The figure below shows a polygon consisting of rectangles and right triangles. When cut out and folded on the dotted lines, the polygon forms a triangular prism. Suppose that:
and
What is the volume of the prism?
Solution:
Since maps to on the map, we know Since is a rectangle with and being opposite, we know Since maps to on the map, we know Since is a rectangle with and being opposite, we know Since is a rectangle with and being opposite, we know Since we know The area of is Now, we can make this prism complete with bases of and The volume of a prism is the area of the base times the altitude to the base. We can use as our base and as our altitude. This would make our volume equal to
Thus, the answer is C.
25.
A cricket randomly hops between leaves, on each turn hopping to one of the other leaves with equal probability. After hops, what is the probability that the cricket has returned to the leaf where it started?
Solution:
We begin by defining the action of the cricket jumping to the starting leaf as and the action of it jumping to any of the other three leaves as With this in mind, note that when the cricket is on the first leaf, the probability of it jumping to the first leaf, is zero, and the probability that it jumps to any of the other leaves, is Similarly, notice that when the cricket is not on the first leaf, and
Therefore, let us map out all possible paths the cricket can take in four hops, and track the probability of each path as follows:
We want to find the total probability of the cricket landing on the first leaf, and as such, we want to find the total probability that the last node in the diagram is This means that we want to find :
Thus, the answer is E.